My Journey

I've had migraines my whole life, but I didn't realise they were migraines until they got significantly worse in my mid 40's. I thought I had a lot of headaches, and it was normal to take paracetamol and ibuprofen multiple times per week.

In my mid 40s I started getting migraines most days, which significantly affected my life - I couldn't think clearly which made work difficult, I was tired and needed a nap or two every day, I couldn't easily travel. On the advice of my neurologist I tried a variety of medications - some helped, but most had undesirable side effects that affected things such as memory, heart rate, etc, and none got close to eliminating the migraines.

I read many books and watched videos from many neurologists and other medical professionals, and experimented to see what works for me. "Migraine Miracle" by Dr Josh Turknett combined with information from Dr Elena Gross got me started in a direction that reduced my migraines to the point I can live my life largely migraine free, without any prescription migraine preventative medication and very few painkillers.

These days migraines are far less frequent, and when they occur they're much less of a problem. My migraines have gone from daily to once or twice a month, but I generally know what has caused them, and they are much milder than before. The main times I get migraines these days is when I eat foods I know I shouldn't, when I go into very bright, busy office spaces, when I drive long distance, or especially when I combine these triggers. In the early days I had to be very careful what I ate, but with all the changes I've made I have a lot more flexibility and can tolerate some migraine triggers such as foods or drinks that a year ago would've had me in bed all day with a migraine.

As a bonus, I lost about 15kg with relatively little effort, which I believe is largely due to eating whole, natural foods that are lower in carbohydrates than I used to eat.